90 The Safe Thing To Do

Tears filled Ruby's eyes. When Ash put it like that it was hard to vocalize her reasons. It took her a minute to manage to get one out.

"What about your family? Don't you want another one someday? I can't give you that!"

"I didn't want another family at all," he said seriously. "I thought about either killing myself or continuing to live alone in misery forever to atone for failing them until you came along and gave me something to live for.

"Haven't you been looking at the pictures you've taken on this trip? Without planning to, I already got another family and I wouldn't trade them for anything. You and Flora are my family, Ruby. Don't make me lose my family again because you're scared."

She was stunned; she had no idea he felt that way. And it was true that the pictures did make it look like they were a family, albeit a very mismatched one.

How had this happened? This conversation started with asking Ash what was wrong and ended with an extremely emotional confession of love. He seemed completely serious. Could she afford to take that risk?

He said he could go outside and lock his feelings away so they could continue the way they were before. That would be the safe thing to do.

Ruby had always played things safe. Hiding herself away from the world and any meaningful connections because she was conditioned to be afraid of what would happen if someone knew the real her.

Ash did. He saw her for exactly who she was and still loved her. Taking a chance on this could either make her happier than she ever imagined was possible or completely destroy her.

She might be completely crazy for doing this but…she zoomed forward and practically headbutted him with her lips. The only other times this had happened he had initiated it and she had been unconscious the second time so she had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

That was okay though because Ash did. He snaked his arms around her neck to pull her closer and tangled a hand in her hair as he eagerly kissed her back. His kisses were much gentler than hers had been.

He was very careful with her but still ended up pricking one of her lips with his fang. He stopped the moment he tasted the blood.

"Wow. That really does taste like dirt!"

Ruby stared at him like he was an idiot. "Are you serious?"

Ash laughed. "No, but I really had you going for a second didn't I?"

She beat her fists against his chest. Way to kill the mood. "That is NOT funny Ash Mayhew! Ugh, why do I even like you?!"

"Sorry, sorry. But hey, at least you finally admitted you liked me!" He noticed she was still not amused and grew more serious. "I only stopped because I didn't want to hurt you again. We might need to practice a bit so that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore."

Ruby sighed. This sort of incompatibility problem was exactly what she was worried about. Fairies weren't supposed to date vampires so of course something as simple as kissing would be an issue.

It was too late to regret that now. For better or worse she had made her choice.

"Yeah," she agreed lamely. "Later. Let's go to bed."

She changed out of her dirty clothes in the bathroom and got into a pair of pajamas, coming back out and looking at the beds with a sense of disbelief. This whole thing started because she had been sleeping with Flora.

Feeling her heart beat uncomfortably fast, she headed over to the bed where Ash was waiting for her expectantly. He lay on his back as usual but left one arm out so there was space for her to curl up next to him.

Ruby sighed inwardly. She never used blankets because they restricted her ability to roll over with her wings but she was going to freeze if she cuddled him.

She pulled a sweater out of her bag and put it on over her pajama top along with a pair of socks. Hopefully that would be sufficient protection from her ice cold boyfriend. Was he really her boyfriend though? They never made it official.

After turning off the light, she curled up next to him on her side with one arm stretched out across his chest and asked, "Hey…are we boyfriend and girlfriend or what? We didn't exactly get around to deciding that."

There was a definite smile in Ash's voice when he answered. "I would have thought that was fairly obvious but yes, Ruby, we are boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Okay, I was just checking. I've never done this before, you know."

"That's alright. The last time I did this was a few centuries before the terms 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' even existed so I'm pretty out of practice too. We can figure things out together, alright? For now let's sleep."

Easy for him to say! Ash was out like a light almost instantly, completely at peace with the world. Ruby on the other hand was freaking out too much to sleep.

What. Did. She. Just. Do.

She actually gave into the insanity and was dating a vampire. What would her parents think if they could see her now?! The fire fairies back in Las Vegas had been horrified at the very thought of the two of them dating back when she thought it was an impossibility.

Look at her now. Curling up to sleep next to a vampire entirely by choice after kissing him and thoroughly enjoying it up until the moment she got pricked. That had stung a little.

This really was going to take an awful lot of getting used to, wasn't it? Ruby dreaded the thought but part of her was looking forward to it as well. As long as she got to stay with Ash as they figured things out everything should be fine. Right?